I am a huge Disney geek. I have been to Disneyland Paris five times, Disneyland California once and DisneyWorld Florida three times. Channel four filmed a documentary of me at DisneyWorld in 2003 and I have seen (and bought) every film they have released. I even have a stack of toys and games.
OK – so I am a Disney fanatic. I know that and to be honest, I’m fine with that. Everyone has their passions and mine is escaping into Disneymania. Today I am angry, upset and disheartened with Disney.
First some context. Disney began a reward system about 5 years ago (maybe longer) where for every Disney film purchase you make, Disney would give back reward points. As all of my purchases in the past five years have been Blu-Rays, for each one I would receive 150 points back. If you let these points amass you can get back Disney films. For 900 points you can get one blu-ray and for 4500 points you can get the Pixar Blu-Ray box set. As you can see, you do need a lot of points to get these titles meaning you would need to buy a lot of films in the first place. Over the years I have gained a lot of points and already received some titles through the reward system. Lately I had amassed over 2000 points and was saving them for Christmas. Perfect for stocking fillers and for my friends with kids. I logged in yesterday and saw that my balance was at zero. Thinking I had made a log in mistake or the system had crashed, I emailed Disney. They informed me that they changed the terms and conditions and sent one email earlier this year to inform their members that all points would now expire after six months. ONE EMAIL? I have spent so much money with Disney – so much I couldn’t even add it up and they pull this? Here is the response I have just emailed to them:
Hi,
I’ve just checked back through my emails and can’t find anything that informs me of this. I rarely delete emails but it is possible I deleted by mistake.
I find this to be a disgraceful way to treat your loyal customers. As a life-long Disney fan, I have bought everything you have released; on VHS, DVD and again on Blu-ray. The cost of this endless buying of the same titles is costly and I welcomed the fact that you acknowledged this with a reward scheme which gave back to its customers. As you can see from my account, I have bought a lot and if memory serves, I had amassed over 2000 points ready to place my orders for Christmas.
You say you sent ONE email – surely for however many people you have on the rewards scheme who like me would be saving their points, this is hardly a fair thing to do. In this technological age, everyone gets countless emails from every company they have bought from, subscribed to, people they work with and friends touching base. One email earlier this year (I am presuming more than six months ago as my points have now been taken away) is hardly acceptable.
Looking on the site today you have rewards up to 4500 – how can anyone reach that number in six months unless they are a company buying in bulk? This new rule is simply a kick in the face for us loyal customers and your rewards will now only benefit the very rich or bulk buying from companies, both of which don’t need this offer.
Of course this is a “free” bonus reward that Disney don’t have to offer at all – but you have been offering it for many years. To suddenly take away our points and say we should have read one email sent over six months ago that informed us of this is sickening, especially coming from a company who pride themselves on bringing so much happiness to so many people.
The inconvenience this has caused is for the first time in my life, I have lost faith in Disney.
Terry Gee
I don’t know if they’ll respond, if it will mean anything to them or if they’ll give me my points back but I needed them to know how cheated I feel.
Has anyone else had any problems lately with this happening to them?
